Something we don't like to talk about...

...or think about, really: our wills. The legal kind, mind you. Not, like, the will to live. Or to not eat all of the chocolate chip cookies.

Mmmm, cookies.

With my trip to Africa less than a month away (!!!), the fate of my animals, should anything happen to me overseas, has been heavy on my mind. So, I did what any normal, not at all morbid girl would do: I sent a random email to my mom that started off with, "In the event of my death..." No, not really. But basically.

A little over 3 years ago, I did the same thing, after a girl I was boarding with wrecked and died driving home from the barn. I sent instructions to my mother on who she could farm out my animals to, should something happen to me. At the time, I had a much more varied collection of species than I do now, and a lot of the list went like this: "See if so-and-so wants ___. If not, try so-and-so. If they're a no too, then do this." The snakes and lizards were actually the easiest to determine who they went to. The horse and the cat were the hardest.

A lot has changed since then, so I decided I needed to make an updated list that covered my newer additions- namely, a Corgi and a Paint horse.

In the event that something did happen to me, I'm sure my family would keep Romeo and Ramses. That being said, I know they would not keep the horses, as none of them are horse people, and I am pretty sure they would not be interested in the little Duracell battery that is Fiona.

But I'm so cute!

I knew immediately who I would want Chica to go to- I have some friends that I met while boarding that now have their own land, and honestly, I don't think anyone would appreciate and love her more than they would. The wife is always praising Chica and constantly teasing me about letting Chica go to her real home. They have other horses, a cow, and various other livestock. They are very nice people and treat their animals very well. In fact, in talking them up so much, I feel like I should just drive over and deliver Chica to them now.

"A place where I can just frolic and eat? Sign me up!"

If they didn't want or could not take her, then I have several friends that I know would give Chica a wonderful place to live out her golden years. I told my mom that I want her to stay "in the family"- that is, in the horse family. Especially now that she's older and has navicular. She does not deserve to end up neglected in a field somewhere.

Sienna could be sold, as that was always the plan with her. I gave my mom a short list of her abilities and the kind of person she would be wonderful for. With a name like Too Shy To Unzip, I'm sure she has a bright future ahead of her.

Not amused.

 That leaves Fiona. I do not know what would happen to my little Corgi, and that makes me truly sad. I have a couple of friends that might take her, but the list is short- and a home for her might have to be found outside the realm of people we know if my parents decided to not keep her. I was sure to include in my email that if someone took her, they could only have her on the agreement that she never went to a shelter- if that happened, I would haunt them as long as they lived. Like, poltergeist, throw stuff across the room haunt them. I am bonded to all of my animals in different ways, but Fiona is the first dog I've had that was MY dog. She snuggles with me at night, she prefers me to other people, and I cannot leave the room without her bolting after me like she's missing out on something. Meanwhile, Romeo puts himself to bed in the other room around 8:00 PM. I know he's my boy and he would defend me to the end, but there's something about a dog whose main drive in life is to be with you every second that she can. I think she (followed by Ramses) would have the hardest time adjusting to new people/life without me. The three days I was in New Orleans last year that she stayed with my parents were apparently rough for all involved- and then I came home, and she crawled into my lap and fell asleep- the first time she had actually relaxed the entire time she had been there, according to my parents.

"Should I be concerned?"

This is a sad subject, and I have definitely teared up, wondering what would happen to my babies if something happened to me. I don't know why I felt the need to write a post about it, other than to remind everyone- we don't know how long we're here for. Those of us that have animals especially need to be cognizant of what will happen to them if something happens to us- I've seen so many cases where a dog/cat/horse's owner died, and the animal ended up neglected, on the streets, or in the shelter, because no one knew what to do with it.

Also, I'm a controlling person, and perhaps this is just an attempt to extend my influence beyond the grave. I don't know. I do know that it is about an hour from quittin' time and I'm going to go home and hug all of my pets for a long time.

We may all be doofy, but it works.

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10 Things I Hate About Chica

10. I hate that my generally wonderful mare bucked me off yesterday.

9. I hate that she did it because two other horses ran up behind her, inciting her to bolt, with me hanging on for dear life.

8. I hate that when I asked her to whoa, she responded by bucking me off.

7. I hate that one day I can sit there and talk about how wonderful and trustworthy my mare is, only to have her dump my butt the next day- for the first time in years.

6. I hate that after she bucked me off, she and her compadres all galloped to the front of the pasture, leaving me to stumble my way back by myself- having to pause at least once because I was seriously hurting- while they watched.

5. I hate that when I went to longe Chica, hoping to prove a point by making her run and run, she turned back into her kind self, happily walking, trotting, and cantering on my voice command.

4. I hate that when I got on her after longing her, looking for a fight, she did everything I asked perfectly, forcing me to swallow my anger.

3. I hate that I have to acknowledge that part of this was my fault, as I should not have been riding bridleless, probably. Even though I do it with her all the time.

2. I hate what episodes such as this one turn me into,

1. But mostly I hate the way I don't hate her, not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.

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Much Ado About Nothing

In an effort to not think about the tour of the vet school I have to give to ~20 people this morning, I am writing this post. I don't know what it will be about; I suppose I'll find out as I go.

Flash was pretty great this Saturday. She even loped off immediately a couple of times right when I kissed- I was so surprised one of these times that she almost left me behind. She is wont to lope in tiny circles with her shoulder dropped, so after she got a little more consistent at the canter departure, we worked on doing larger loops and staying in the bridle. We worked on some other things, like moving her off my leg, and all in all I'd say we had a very successful ride.

Next up was Sienna. I should have known something was up when she, of her own volition, took off trotting and then cantering on the longe line... this usually lazy horse of mine. I got on her, and immediately things went south. She fought me for her head, she wanted to trot like a jackhammer, and she was just as unpleasant as she could be. After working her slow for a good while, I asked her to canter on her right lead- and we were off to the races. She grabbed the bit in her teeth, shook her head back and forth, and was like "later, sucka". I grabbed my outside rein and started s l o w l y pulling her into the fence to stop her (without tripping her), and she threw her head up angrily in the air, her feet wanting to follow.

And that was it. I had had it. I leaped off of her, sending her flying backwards with me barely hanging onto the reins, and we had a little pow-wow about her horrible attitude. Once that was over, I got back on, and we had a beautiful canter on the right lead. We next had to work through how to whoa at "whoa", a concept that we keep having to come back to, but we got that settled, as well. I got off feeling like we had at least accomplished something. And I vowed to ride her more- Flash takes up my daylight on weekdays, so Sienna has had a lot of time off.

Finally, I tacked up Chica with my English saddle and just her halter, and we went off down the road to relax and unwind (for me, at least). We went further than we have before, and of course the sky chose to start sprinkling, but it was a great ride that reminded me how awesome Chica is. At one point, we were cantering down the side of the road, and we got into a boggy area that started sucking at Chica's feet. Rather than stopping, Chica slowed to a lope unlike anything she has ever done before and loped through the mess, striving to stay at the gait I had asked for. On the way back, my back started hurting, so I rode side-saddle for a little ways (something I still hope to learn for serious one day). It's SO SO nice having a horse that I trust, especially in the midst of Flash and Sienna. Sienna was getting there last semester, before Christmas break, but I dropped the ball with her.

Sunday turned out to be a stormy day. I woke up at 7 to the wind picking up, saw on my phone that we were under a tornado watch, and went into action- I let my dogs out before the storm hit, and ran outside, with the intention of trying to get the horses fed before the rain and wind and such. I made it out to the feed shed, and there was a flash of light, and a huge "boom!", and I thought, "Abort! Abort!" Since my roommate's baby is right next to the feed shed, I threw her hay and feed, and then ran back inside- right as the rain started. So the horses had an impromptu day off, and I cleaned a little and took a nap and had an impromptu day off for myself.

Neat clouds

Beautiful sky

So, I guess this post turned into a horse post, as do most things around me. In ending, here is a non-horse picture of some ducks that have taken to the pond behind my house. Every time I walk out of my front door, like 20 of these guys fly up quacking, scaring me to death.

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Flashy Flash

When my friend asked me to break her horse for her, my first thought was, "Wooo! This will be fun!" My immediate next thought was, "Oh noooo I need to go hide in a hole ahhh how am I going to do thissss," all at the same time. You see, while I've had experience breaking several horses, I've never done the whole process with a horse that hasn't at least been backed before. Especially not by myself, with no one coaching me.

Enter Flash.

"Hello!"

 When I came back from Christmas break, I decided to bring Sienna and Flash back with me and leave Chica momentarily. The whole loading the trailer experience, however, really made me second-guess my decision.

Sienna loaded easily enough, but then Flash- Flash acted pretty much how I would expect a just auctioned off mustang, fresh off the prairie, to load. Like this: "AHHHH WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME STRANGER DANGER SOMEONE SAVE MEEEE!" I had to unload Sienna and try loading Flash in the front instead, which worked a lot better- until I shut the divider and she realized she had nowhere to go and tried to crawl under the divider. Cue freakout!

She bashed her head pretty good, and I thought we were all going to die, but I managed to calm her down. With the help of a worker out at the stable, we were able to figure out a system that kept her head up and yet left it loose enough that she didn't try and fight it. Poor Sienna was like "?" when I loaded her afterwards, but thems the breaks, kiddo.

Once we got back to my house, then new problem was figuring out how to unload her. By myself. I knew that as soon as the divider opened, she'd be outta there. I tied Sienna at her head to distract her, and somehow, we got out of the trailer in one piece.

Things didn't appear so bleak once she was out, but now I was seriously unsure of how I was going to be able to break her. She was skittish, head-shy, and in a new place. I was grateful for the small paddock we built at the front of the pasture, because I knew I'd never catch her at the rate we were going out in the big pasture.

She and Sienna hit it off; or, at least, she hit it off with Sienna. Sienna was pretty indifferent, and, surprisingly, she has grown to be quite jealous of Flash.

"Remember how you're my mom? Not hers?"

I started off doing a lot of ground work with Flash, because, if I was going to get on her, we were going to have to get a few things straight ahead of time. I longed her, swung ropes around her, put a rope around her girth and tightened it, like I was cinching a saddle, taught her how to give her head and turn in response to pressure, how to trot in hand- the more we accomplished, the quieter she became. I put the bareback pad on her a couple of times before saddling her, since it had a cinch, and she tolerated it way better than I expected. Soon, I brought out the saddle, and she took to it very well- she hardly even bucked once it was on.

"I'm a big kid now!"

 Next came the bit and bridle. I was pretty sure we were going to have to work through some issues there- as I said, she can be head shy, and she tends to go up to get away from pressure. I started driving her, so that she could rear and work through all of that without me on her back. The first couple of times were grim, indeed- she almost fell over at one point in response to me asking her to turn her head- but before long, she was walking out, turning in circles, and giving her head in response to slight pressure on the lines. We even trotted, with me running behind her in what I'm sure was a classy rendition of a carriage ride.

I've been riding her for about 12 days now, and I'm still surprised every time I get on her how well she has taken to everything. The first few times I sat on her and asked her to move forward, she would only back- so I had to get off, bump the stirrups against her side while I clicked, and basically show her what the "go forward" cue meant. But now, we're walking and jogging all around. She does try to test me and see if she can stop while we're trotting, and then she gets cranky when I bump my heels into her sides- but so far, she hasn't given me much grief.

I have to be very, very light with her- if I get too snatchy with the reins, or I kick super hard, or I go to smack her with the reins, we'll probably end up in the next county- but as long as I stay quiet and confident with her, she stays quiet. She's like a child- if she feels like I'm in control and assured, she is happy to follow me. And the funny thing is, she really likes me. I think she likes me more than Sienna does. And that definitely helps when I'm asking her to do something she's not sure about- I've found that if she's spooking at something and I blow into her nostrils, it brings her back down from her scared place and kind of grounds her. Who would've thunk it?

This has been a really good experience, and I thank God for sending me what I needed when I was feeling down. I'll be glad when it's back to just my horses and I, mostly because I worry all the time that Flash is going to injure herself while she's here, but also because they have kind of gone on the back burner while I've worked with Flash. Also, I realized last night that I should probably give Flash a day off every now and then. Can't say I've ever had that thought with my own two...

In ending, enjoy this video of Romeo, who was scared to death of horses, pulling Sienna around. What a good pony!

 

I apologize for my high pitched, over-enthusiastic voice.

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